Baby Steps

Last week I had Chinese lessons every day from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. This was pretty intense because it was one-on-one so there wasn't the distraction of other students. Despite the difficulty of learning Chinese (and this is the first language I've ever had to learn), I went from not knowing much, to knowing a little. I'm now comfortable enough to get into a taxi and tell the driver where I want to go and how to get there. Conversations around me have stopped sounding like a buzz that I usually just tune out and now sounds more like, "blablablablablablabla three blablablablabla went blablablablablabla friend blablablablabla there."

I suppose that's progress.

Just a Little Annoyed

I've been living out of a suitcase since mid-August. Let me tell you how much I love that. I LOVE IT NOT AT ALL.

The Little Things

Yesterday, I found fresh thyme. It seems like such a small thing to celebrate, but I did a little happy dance regardless. Of course, it was in a specialty shop (for expats/foreigners) because the Chinese don't use thyme at all so it's not in any of the local markets. But me? I can't cook without fresh thyme. The price was just under a dollar for a bunch twice as big as what you would get in Canada. This is still China, after all.

In any case, yesterday I had a little culinary victory with my thyme; which was pretty much the highlight of my day. That sounds kind of pathetic, but after being beaten down my Chinese teacher all morning, finding thyme seemed like a really great thing.